Lions' Past District
Governor, Ross Gibbons
presented Dr Yunus Solwa
with the Prof. Ian Frazer
Humanitarian Award this
week at the Kuraby Lions
Changeover ceremony for his
support of the Lions Medical
Research Foundation (LMRF).

The award was in recognition
of Dr Solwa's ongoing
sponsorship of Kuraby Lions
President David Forde's
participation in the
Magnetic Island to
Townsville open water swim
for LMRF for the third year
running.

By
asserting my identity in a way
that challenges my ‘place in the
world’, I inadvertently
challenge those who feel
entitled to their privilege and
status

Yassmin Abdel-Magied: ‘Look
at this face, hey? How could I
possibly be intimidating?

Given that I am now the
most publicly hated Muslim
in Australia, people have
been asking me how I am.
What do I say? That life has
been great and I can’t wait
to start my new adventure in
London? That I’ve been
overwhelmed with messages of
support? Or do I tell them
that it’s been thoroughly
rubbish? That it is
humiliating to have almost
90,000 twisted words written
about me in the three months
since Anzac Day, words that
are largely laced with hate.

Do I reveal that it’s
infuriatingly frustrating to
have worked for years as an
engineer, only to have that
erased from my public
narrative? That it is
surreal to be discussed in
parliamentary question time
and Senate estimates for
volunteering to promote
Australia through public
diplomacy programs? That I
get death threats on a daily
basis, and I have to
reassure my parents that I
will be fine, when maybe I
won’t be? That I’ve resorted
to moving house, changing my
phone number, deleting my
social media apps. That
journalists sneak into my
events with schoolchildren
to sensationally report on
what I share. That I’ve been
sent videos of beheadings,
slayings and rapes from
people suggesting the same
should happen to me.

Do I reassure my parents or
do I tell them the truth? I
have yet to decide.

I wrote the essay below at
the beginning of the year,
post Q&A but pre-Anzac. Even
that statement is a
reflection of the sad
reality that my life seems
to simply exist in reference
to the various outrages my
voice has caused.

Whether or not one agrees
with me isn’t really the
point. The reality is the
visceral nature of the fury
– almost every time I share
a perspective or make a
statement in any forum – is
more about who I am than
about what is said. We
should be beyond that but we
are not. Many, post-Anzac,
said the response wasn’t
about me but about what I
represent. Whether or not
that is true, it has
affected my life, deeply and
personally.

***

"Ah, the worst that can
happen is someone
sending you an angry
email. Just don’t read
it, you will be fine.
Don’t forget to take
your vitamins. Have you
checked your iron
levels? You know your
anaemia makes you
tired."

Modern-day activism does not
garner much sympathy from my
migrant parents. Looking at
it objectively it’s
something I can understand:
in Sudan the kinds of fights
they were involved in had
much higher risks. Their
friends were jailed,
tortured, killed. My mother
faced off an army who wanted
to storm her university’s
dormitory during Colonel
Omar al-Bashir’s coup of
1989. My father would
regularly tell my younger
brother and me stories of
what kind of dangers people
faced as they fought for
their political ideals.

“One of our friends was
taken by police during a
protest, for no apparent
reason,” Dad recounted one
evening at the dinner table.
“We all knew that if we did
not get him back in time, he
would be killed. So we
kicked up a huge fuss to get
him back, stormed the police
stations, got in the media …
We did not hear anything
back by the evening, and
thought that all was lost.
The next morning, the man’s
mother heard a knock on the
door. Someone had dumped a
body at the foot of the
gate, bloody and beaten
beyond recognition. It was
our friend, so badly
tortured that his own mother
did not recognise him.
Subhanallah though, he was
still alive.”

Such stories are not
uncommon for anyone who has
lived in a nation cursed by
conflict. In fact, violence
can become so normalised
that it can be an expected
consequence of pushing for
social or political change,
and there are no systems of
protection in place to
guarantee a person’s
physical safety. It’s no
wonder, then, that the
battles of a young “keyboard
warrior” in Australia do not
seem quite so serious to my
war-weary parents. Compared
with what they moved away
from, the 140-character
threats of “Twitter trolls”
seem almost quaint.

There is one major
difference, however.
Although the ideas we are
fighting for – human rights,
social justice, equality –
have not necessarily
changed, the ways those
battles are fought certainly
have. My parents’ activism
was localised, talking to
issues that at most would
affect the surrounding
region and segment of
Sudanese society. Theirs was
a fight for just governance
within a single country,
rather than an ideological
battle across nations. It
was also an analogue
challenge. The nature of
communication meant that
individual reach was limited
and therefore individual
exposure appropriately
throttled. This lent itself
to a collective front,
buffering individuals
somewhat from personal
criticism and opposition.

Today a public advocate’s
platform is digital and
greatly magnified. An issue
or debate unfolding in one
place can be amplified
through a video or tweet to
gain international support
or condemnation – sometimes
both – simultaneously. News
travels almost instantly,
and the feedback is equally
as swift. Individuals can be
rewarded with incredible
highs – a following that
spans the globe, the ability
to easily create content
that reaches millions,
membership of an online
community that “gets it” –
but also with floods of
criticism and personal,
pointed abuse.

The way this feedback is
delivered is also incredibly
isolating – abuse appears in
an individual’s inbox,
Twitter feed, Facebook page.
And while the inverse to
this – retweets, likes,
positive comments and
messages – does give some
sense of solidarity and a
collective front, that front
as a number on a screen
rather than the physical
presence of others can only
go so far towards steeling
your resolve. There is
little shared experience to
commiserate upon. Even among
those who identify with each
other, it is difficult to
convey a sense of such
personal attacks. We might
all be fighting the same
fight but we have our own
demons that divide us for
easy picking.

Furthermore, an individual’s
online presence creates a
safety concern that is
different from those
experienced by previous
generations. Whereas my
parents would have feared
government retribution in
the form of being detained,
disappeared or killed, the
threats faced by activists
and advocates today are not
nearly as organised. They
are amorphous, overwhelming
and seemingly impossible to
defend against. Imagine
every single piece of
information about you, which
you have inadvertently made
available online somehow, in
the hands of someone who
does not know you, does not
like you and does not care
what happens to you – either
a teenage hacker or a
national broadsheet – and
few rules or consequences if
that information is used
against you. It is almost
enough to terrify an
activist into silence.
Almost.

“You should just get
offline!” I am regularly
advised, after explaining
what it is like to be a
commentator in the public
space, advocating for
ludicrous concepts such as
the right to be heard or the
seemingly radical ideal of
equality. Asking us to go
offline is like asking us to
leave the streets. Sure,
it’s the safe thing to do,
but it ignores the
importance of the online in
any struggle today. The
online and offline worlds
are inextricably linked; in
2017 they are simply
different dimensions of the
same reality.

***

I learnt these realities in
a baptism of fire in
September 2016 after I
walked out of a speech and
accidentally picked an
ideological fight with a US
woman who is an important
literary figure. What I did
not realise at the time was
that this is something a
young, brown Muslim woman
simply must not do,
particularly if the conflict
is even vaguely connected to
the nebulous concept dubbed
“identity politics” – a
phrase coined, seemingly, to
dismiss or disregard anyone
asking for their oppression,
historical context or
personal reality to be
recognised and respected.

How silly of me to miss the
memo. Respect is so passé.

I shall spare you the
details; googling “Lionel
Shriver Yassmin Abdel-Magied”
should be enough to keep you
entertained for hours. Put
simply, I had flown a little
too close to the sun. I’d
been given my wings, told I
could fly with the flock and
contribute to the discussion
as an equal, told I could be
a part of “us”. No one
mentioned the feathers were
fixed in place with wax, and
the sun wouldn’t hesitate to
strip them away.

Walking out, and then
writing an (admittedly)
emotionally charged piece
about my reasoning, led to
an unexpected – and global –
ideological hammering.
Criticism and ad hominem
attacks were levelled from
all over the world, starting
with Australia’s national
broadsheet and stretching
all the way to the New York
Times.

Not only was the outcry
deafening but the commentary
it unleashed was merciless.
Breitbart, the (fake?) news
site and platform of the
“alt-right” – formerly
chaired by Steve Bannon, now
Donald Trump’s chief
strategist – featured an
article on the encounter. It
was not as cruel as it could
have been, if I’m honest.
But it was certainly deeply
convinced of its own
righteousness:

‘Everyone’s entitled to
their opinion’ … But if
that opinion happens to
be so ill
thought-through, poorly
argued, whiny, needy,
constrictive, selfish,
ugly, ignorant, flat out
wrong and probably quite
dangerous too, then they
deserve to be called on
it and relentlessly,
mercilessly mocked till
they never spout such
unutterable bollocks
ever again in their
special snowflake lives.

I had messages from friends
in India, Italy and
Indonesia whose friends and
family had been discussing
the affair. For a brief
moment it became the topic
of dinner-table
conversation. The result of
that spotlight though meant
that for the next three or
four weeks my life was
overwhelmed by this story. I
had hundreds of emails a
day, to the point where I
began to automatically
delete them and avoided my
multiple inboxes completely,
to the chagrin of those who
were trying to connect for
non Shriver-related
business. I deleted Twitter
from my phone, deactivated
Facebook and wrote almost
nothing online for an entire
month. Which, for me, is a
pretty long time.

But because the online is
not truly separate from the
offline in our lives, it
wasn’t truly an online coma.
The modern-day equivalent of
a pack of citizen paparazzi,
perhaps, were still on the
front lawn, constantly
slipping notes under the
door, knocking on the
windows, yelling
obscenities. While I
couldn’t hear or see them, I
knew they were there.

For a modern-day “social
justice warrior”, as we are
often pejoratively named,
being attacked online comes
with a sense of being
desperately alone. It was me
and a glowing screen, the
dings of messages, tweets,
emails sent by strangers
reminding me of my place in
the world.

Drip by drip, message by
message, it’s the Chinese
water torture of the online
age.

***

The weeks rolled by. The
influx of messages
eventually slowed and a
semblance of normality was
restored. It seemed the
storm had passed.

Months later, at the Jaipur
literature festival, I
bumped into another
important literary figure.
Tall, imposing and very
British, he was the type of
high-level agent who
wouldn’t normally bother
with someone like me – save
for the fact that I too am
tall, and our eyes met
briefly as he crossed the
lawn. He slowed as he
approached me, then stopped
as his face brightened.

“Oh, I know you,” he said.
“You’re the girl they’re all
talking about!” I assumed he
was referring to the elite
group of global literary
stars gathered at the
writers’ party that evening.

“Good things, I hope?” I
said, glibly.

His response was emphatic
and, in a typical English
fashion, faintly apologetic.

“Oh, no, no, I’m afraid not.
They all disagree with you,
really.”

“Oh!” I feigned shock,
though of course I was very
well aware. The next line
was much more genuine: “I do
wish they would disagree to
my face! I would love to
have a conversation with
them.”

The agent shook his head. It
was late and he looked
slightly intoxicated, which
was probably why he was more
forthright than Englishmen
usually seem to be.

“Oh, no, no one would do
that. You’re very
intimidating! We’re all a
little frightened of you.”

I flashed my biggest,
pearliest smile and pointed
at my teeth. “Look at this
face, hey? How could I
possibly be intimidating?”

But it seems there is
something incredibly
intimidating about a young,
brown Muslim woman who is
unafraid to speak her mind.
This became clear again in
February 2017 when I was
invited to join a panel
discussion on the ABC’s Q&A.

You may have seen the video
– after all, it took only a
week for the clip to reach
12 million views on
Facebook. In essence, I
challenged Senator Jacqui
Lambie’s views on sharia and
Islam, loudly and
passionately. The immediate
response online was
incredibly positive,
bolstering my confidence –
but that was short-lived. My
head above the parapet, I
then became the subject of a
strange and unnecessary
character assassination by
the national broadsheet.
“This is it,” I thought.
“I’m never going to get a
corporate job again. Who
will employ me after the
things that have been said?”

But this time around, I
would be pleasantly
surprised. Within a week,
voices of support made
themselves heard: radio
presenters challenged the
criticisms levied against
me, breakfast show hosts
defended my reputation, and
much ink was spilled in
calling out the bullying and
canvassing for a more
considered and egalitarian
response. I could not
believe it, to be honest:
the articles and columns
laced with hatred I had come
to expect – but others
putting themselves on the
line to offer their support?
It was a humbling and
fascinating experience.
Perhaps, on reflection, I
was not in this alone after
all.

***

The irony in all this, of
course, is that I am no one
very important. I do not
hold an elected office, I do
not officially represent any
racial or cultural group,
and I have never been part
of a political party, union
or even political student
organisation. I am a
25-year-old Muslim
engineering chick, born in
the Sahara desert, whose
words occasionally find
themselves in the public
arena. And if a few words
that I put together are
enough to terrify
institutions into attacking
me, stumbling over
themselves to demonstrate
why “people like her” are
wrong and why we should not
be listened to because our
words are oppressive, then
one has to ask, what are
they so afraid of? Why are
they so afraid? For if the
argument was truly as
irrelevant as so many claim
it to be, then surely it
wouldn’t be worth all this
energy.

Today’s identity politics
are about power – but not
“real” or “traditional”
power. The reality is, real
power – that which lies in
financial resources, the
mainstream media and
politics – is held by hands
similar to those of 50 or
100 years ago: white, male
hands. Not much has changed.
Sure, there are several
women and people of colour
fighting the fight, and many
more making their way up the
ranks, but look at the true
hallmarks of power. Who owns
the media companies,
controls the big corporates,
runs the countries? If the
real, hard stations of power
are still in the hands of
those who have always had
it, why are they so worried?

Part of me suspects that the
reason these attacks are so
vitriolic, swift and
all-encompassing is because
they are about identity.
Identity politics is
personal, and that’s why
people take it so
personally. By asserting my
identity in a way that
challenges my “place in the
world”, I inadvertently
challenge the place of those
who feel entitled to their
privilege and status. That
feels not only wrong to such
people, but deeply,
personally offensive –
because what is at stake is
who they are in the world.
And so they fight viciously,
because if privilege and
status and wealth and
whiteness define who they
are, what else could be more
valuable?

Those who lack a definitive
“place” in society have
little to lose by calling
out injustices and
structural inequalities, and
much to gain by disrupting
the status quo. For those
with something to lose in
that disruption, this can be
a terrifying prospect. For
everybody else, it is a
reminder of the strength and
conviction that is needed to
fight for a more just world.
On that, my parents and I
agree.

• This is an edited extract
from Griffith Review 56:
Millennials Strike Back

It's 2018, and every Muslim
in Australia has been
interned. The "radicals",
the "moderates", the devout,
the nominal, the
Aussie-born, the migrants,
the Logie winner, the TV
hosts, the Q&A guests. The
lot. Australia is now a
Muslim-free country.

Has Islamophobia won? Well,
no. Because despite the
rhetoric and hysteria, this
is precisely what
Islamophobia does not want.

You see, Islamophobia needs
Muslims. Not because it
"needs an enemy". But
because Islamophobia is
driven by the same logics
that define patriarchy.

This is very different to
saying that Islamophobia is
about hating Muslims. If
only it were that simple.
Think about how much easier
it is to challenge misogyny
– hatred of women – than it
is to challenge patriarchy –
a society structured on male
domination, privilege and
control. In the patriarchal
utopia, women are not
removed from society, but
they exist within a space
that seeks to contain,
groom, control and possess
them.

This, too, is the goal of
Islamophobia, and nothing
has demonstrated its
internal patriarchal logic
more clearly than the
treatment of Yassmin Abdel-Magied
– who, after weathering
months of intense
Islamophobic backlash, drew
further ire this week when
she announced she's decided
to leave the country.

Abdel-Magied has come to
represent everything that
Islamophobia hates – but
actually loves– about "the
Muslim problem". It's a game
of seeing how far "the
Muslim" can be controlled
and disciplined. Like men
who enjoy asserting power
over women's lives, there is
a perverted pleasure in this
exercise of seeking to
dominate Muslim lives –
telling Muslims how and
where to dress, speak, eat,
worship, and live.

The SMH

Channel 7 removes
‘hateful’ poll over Yassmin
Abdel-Magied’s decision to
leave the country

CHANNEL 7’s digital arm has
“unreservedly” apologised
for publishing a now removed
Facebook poll asking
followers to vote on whether
the Muslim activist Yassmin
Abdel-Magied should leave
the country or “face her
critics”.

The poll, posted on the 7
News Australia Facebook
page, was slammed by
followers and commentators
for inciting racist
discussion and bullying, and
Ms Abdel-Magied herself said
it invited “prejudice and
discrimination”.

After being questioned by
news.com.au, the station
removed the poll from and
admitted it “should never
have been posted”.

Yahoo7, which administers
the 7 News Australia
Facebook page along together
with Seven News, has since
taken responsibility for the
post.

The Facebook post published
Tuesday asked followers to
comment on Ms Magied’s
decision to leave Australia.
The controversial television
presenter and commentator
recently announced she was
moving to London after being
“traumatised” over facing
what she described as
“deeply racist” criticism.

The engineer-turned-media
personality has been
constantly criticised since
posting an insensitive
comment on Anzac Day which
she removed from her page.
Seven’s post shared the news
that Ms Abdel-Magied had
announced she was leaving
Australia and posed the
question: “Do you support
her decision to move to
London or do you think she
should stay and face her
critics?”

The post attracted more than
1600 comments and 17,500
votes, according to
Facebook.

In an update
published overnight 15 per
cent of respondents had
voted “no” and 85 per cent
has voted “yes”.

While many respondents were
critical of Ms Abdel-Magied,
an outspoken Muslim who has
defended her religion
publicly, a lot of
commenters hit Seven with
accusations of “bullying”
over the decision to publish
it and invite “racist” and
“vitriolic” discussion”.

“You need a third option
“this shouldn’t even be
polled,” Laura Jane wrote.

“This is awful. Why would
you think it was acceptable
to poll people on Yassmin’s
decision to move to London?
Particularly in light of the
relentless racist vitriol
that she’s copped that 7
News Australia is
contributing to,” Sophie
Trevitt wrote.

“As a media outlet, you
don’t think you have any
ethical and professional
responsibilities? Check out
the comments below.”

Liam O’Reilly wrote: “FFS 7
news stop perpetuating hate
for clicks!

In an email
to news.com.au, Ms Abdel-Magied
said she considered the post
a poor publishing decision.

“This is more a reflection
of Channel 7’s poor
editorial decision-making
than anything else,” she
said.

“The outlet’s profiling of
me in this way invites
prejudice and
discrimination. It’s pretty
trashy click-bait.”

A spokeswoman for Channel 7
told news.com.au the
situation was being
investigated.

“The poll have been removed.
It should never have been
posted and we are reviewing
how that occurred.”

News.com.au has since
received a statement from
Yahoo7 apologising for the
post.

“The poll
regarding Yassmin Abdel-Magied
was posted by the Yahoo7
online news team, which
administers the 7News
Australia Facebook page,
together with 7News,” the
statement read.

“It was posted to genuinely
create discussion around a
balanced article and it was
never the intention to
generate inappropriate
commentary on social media.

“We accept this was an error
of judgment, the post has
been removed and we
unreservedly apologise to
anyone offended.”

For this
burgeoning sector of the
country, the apparition of a
Muslim who looks like
anything other than a
suicide bomber is a scandal.
It contradicts their varied
assertions about the true
evil of Islam, and the
universal untrustworthiness
of Muslims. This growing,
increasingly paranoid
audience have had their
preconceptions so heavily
groomed that any
contradiction becomes an
outrage.

That’s one reason why the
drawn-out and orchestrated
demise of Abdel-Magied has
been so unpleasant to watch
from afar [Ed’s note: Max
Chalmers is now based in the
US].

The
appearance of the ‘moderate
Muslim’, the personage that
newspapers like The
Australian insist they will
tolerate, cannot be allowed
to stand.

“The scale [of the response]
would suggest Yassmin outed
herself on the program as a
paedophile or a North Korean
spy,” Susan Carland wrote
after Yassmin Fury Round
One.

Again, very few responders
actually bothered to put
forward an argument
explaining why this (very
ambiguous) post was
offensive, moving straight
to calls for Abdel-Magied to
be punished. There was a
glee about it. Finally,
something to hang her with.

As the attacks maintained
their pace, their obsessive
tracking of Abdel-Magied’s
movements, their hysteria, a
federal senator eventually
declared the young
Australian should “move to
one of these Arab
dictatorships that are so
welcoming of women.”

As Carland argued, Abdel-Magied’s
critics – the ones who
insist, ‘no no, it’s
behaviours and ideas, not
identities, that we oppose’
– had unmasked themselves.

“It
finally puts into full
technicolour display the
truth of their feelings
towards Muslims: that the
only acceptable Muslim is a
non-Muslim.”

“Many Muslim women avoid the
media, think twice about
public interventions because
the personal cost is so
vicious and so high,”
Abdel-Fattah noted.

“Many Muslim women avoid the
media, think twice about
public interventions because
the personal cost is so
vicious and so high,”
Abdel-Fattah noted.

As with Abdel-Magied, you
may well object to a
particular position held by
Aly. But it is only by
virtue of his religious
identity that he could ever
be treated as truly
outrageous by so many. And
it is only by virtue of his
liberal beliefs, articulate
nature, successful
integration, and handsome
televisual image that his
identity could cause such
burning fury.

He is worse than the
extremist. He is the
moderate who thinly-veiled
Islamophobes have insisted
they will accept.

With the ferocity and fury
that have been unleashed,
it’s easy to forget just how
absurd the situation is.
Abdel-Magied has
consistently put forward a
familiar critique of
Australia as a nation that
has failed to represent and
respond to all of its
inhabitants and has
committed historical wrongs
as a state. She adds a kind
of identity politics to
this, a way of thinking now
intuitive to many younger
Australians especially.

You may take issue with this
worldview or ideological
bent, but you can’t deny it
is drawn from mainstream
currents.

In a
society that bills itself as
open, Abdel-Magied should
have the right to make
radical and even extremist
critiques. As it turns out,
however, she does not.

Migrants do not have to take
the path of Abdel-Magied.
The process of immigration
is one that may take
generations to settle. It is
a tumultuous transformation.
People need to be given the
room to acclimatise, to make
paths for themselves on
their own terms.

But that is not the path
Abdel-Magied has chosen. She
has rapidly joined the
mainstream conversation and
been unafraid to assert her
identity, on her own terms.
She has taken a few steps
down the well-trodden paths
of Australia’s culture wars.
She has not functioned
purely as a spokesperson to
denounce her own non-white
community.

And
worst of all, she hasn’t
done anything unethical or
outrageous in the process.
That’s a crime a growing
number of Australians cannot
abide.

It was
fantastic! The
layout this was
definitely an
improvement! Was
a great night,
value for money
all round, rides
were perfect
even for my
little 2 year
old and the
fireworks
display was
spectacular!

Muslims carried out just 12.4
per cent of attacks in the US
but received 41.4 per cent of
news coverage

Terror attacks carried out
by Muslims receive more than
five times as much media
coverage as those carried
out by non-Muslims in the
United States, according to
an academic study.

Analysis of coverage of all
terrorist attacks in the US
between 2011 and 2015 found
there was a 449 per cent
increase in media attention
when the perpetrator was
Muslim.

Muslims committed just 12.4
per cent of attacks during
the period studied but
received 41.4 per cent of
news coverage, the survey
found.

The authors said the finding
suggests the media is making
people disproportionately
fearful of Muslim
terrorists.

Scientists studied US
newspaper coverage of every
terrorist attack on American
soil and counted up the
total number of articles
dedicated to each attack.

They found that the 2013
Boston Marathon bombing,
which was carried out by two
Muslim attackers and killed
three people, received
almost 20 per cent of all
coverage relating to US
terror attacks in the
five-year period.

In contrast, reporting of a
2012 massacre at a Sikh
temple in Wisconsin that
left six people dead and was
carried out by Wade Michael
Page – a white man,
constituted just 3.8 per
cent of coverage.

A mass shooting by Dylann
Roof, who is also white, at
an African-American church
in Charleston, South
Carolina, killed nine people
but received only 7.4 per
cent of media coverage,
while a 2014 attack by
Frazier Glenn Miller on a
Kansas synagogue left three
dead but accounted for just
3.3 per cent of reports.

All of the above attacks are
considered to meet
widely-used definitions of
terrorism, according to
researchers at Georgia State
University.

The authors said their
finding debunked Donald
Trump’s suggestion, made in
February, that the media is
not reporting terrorist
attacks carried out by
Muslims.

“When President Trump
asserted that the media does
not cover some terrorist
attacks enough, it turns out
that he was correct,” they
wrote. “However, his
assertion that attacks by
Muslim perpetrators received
less coverage is
unsubstantiated.

“Regardless of other
factors, attacks perpetrated
by Muslims receive a
disproportionate amount of
media coverage. In the
present data, Muslims
perpetrated 12.4 per cent of
the attacks yet received
41.4 per cent of the news
coverage.

“Whether the
disproportionate coverage is
a conscious decision on the
part of journalists or not,
this stereotyping reinforces
cultural narratives about
what and who should be
feared.

“By covering terrorist
attacks by Muslims
dramatically more than other
incidents, media frame this
type of event as more
prevalent. Based on these
findings, it is no wonder
that Americans are so
fearful of radical Islamic
terrorism. Reality shows,
however, that these fears
are misplaced.”

Bankstown police officer
Danny Mikati called a
"Signal 1" – officer down or
needing urgent help – only
once in his career.

A day after the Cronulla
riots, rumour had spread
that Maroubra's Bra Boys
were going to bomb Lakemba
Mosque and 1000 people had
turned up to defend it.

As Italian-Australians and
Greek-Australians flew up
from Melbourne to join what
had quickly become an
"ethnics v Aussies"
conflict, the crowd swelled
from six people to hundreds.
Just one police officer was
there, Bankstown's Senior
Constable Mikati.

When a freelance journalist
arrived and started filming
the mosque, the crowd
suddenly turned on him.
Mikati sprinted ahead and
shepherded the journalist
into a car, only to turn and
see the crowd baying for
him, yelling "Get the cop!
Get the cop!"

"All I had time to say was
'Bankstown 85 – urgent'," he
says. "I said a little
prayer in my head and
thought, 'OK, this is how it
ends.' "

But as they were running at
him, men from the Muslim
community who knew Mikati
formed a human chain around
him. "They were copping
shopping trolleys, baseball
bats to the back of their
head, saying 'No one touches
him!' "

It is an indication of
Mikati's status in the
Muslim community that young
men were prepared to risk
their lives for him and take
on a frenzied, angry mob.

Mikati, 40, spent 17 years
on the road as a police
officer, rising to the rank
of sergeant and developing a
reputation as the Muslim
community's cop. There are
few people in south-west
Sydney who wouldn't know his
name.

***
His community conscience
meant he was the only person
in his graduating class to
ask to be stationed at
Bankstown, his home patch
and the place he went on to
spend 14 years of his
career.

He witnessed a murder on his
second day on the job, in
1999. He was called to four
murder scenes before his
first shoplifting job, such
was the blood-letting across
south-west Sydney at the
time.

He can speak Arabic, which
meant he was drafted into
many strike forces ahead of
his time and, despite not
being based in
counter-terrorism, he says
there wasn't a major
terrorism conviction he
wasn't involved in.

He'd have locals pointing
out suspects to him. He'd be
invited into houses rather
than needing to obtain a
search warrant.

He barely slept for two
weeks after the Lindt Cafe
siege in December 2014,
driving around in his own
car, speaking to people,
quelling tensions, gathering
information, strengthening
relationships.

"I was too embedded in the
community to the point
where, if the top brass
wanted to go visit a
community leader, I'd know
before he was coming,"
Mikati says. "[The leader]
would've called me to ask,
'do I trust this guy?'"

Asked if he felt like he
straddled two worlds, he
says: "In the beginning,
yes, but I took a different
approach. I embraced the
profile and tried to work
for the community instead.
But when the terrorism stuff
started, that made things
very hard."

There was a threat on his
life from Islamic State last
year, spread by radical
London preacher Abu Haleema
who perpetuated the hardline
belief that it is forbidden
to enforce a law other than
Islamic law.

At the time, Mikati was
receiving Facebook messages
from extremists. He chatted
back and forth, refuting
arguments with verses from
the Koran, something which
Mikati was adept in, having
minored in Arab and Islamic
studies while studying
medical science at the
University of Sydney in the
'90s.

Mikati, the son of an
atheist who converted last
year, found Islam during his
final year of school, and
says his religion was often
"the ace I had up my
sleeve".

USA: Linda Sarsour, a lead
organizer of the Women’s
March on Washington and one
of the most high-profile
Muslim activists in the
country, gave an impassioned
speech last weekend that at
first gained little
attention.

Speaking to a predominately
Muslim crowd at the annual
Islamic Society of North
America convention in
suburban Chicago, Sarsour
urged her fellow Muslims to
speak out against
oppression.

In her speech, Sarsour told
a story from Islamic
scripture about a man who
once asked Muhammad, the
founder of Islam, “What is
the best form of jihad, or
struggle?

“And our beloved prophet …
said to him, ‘A word of
truth in front of a tyrant
ruler or leader, that is the
best form of jihad,'”
Sarsour said.

“I hope that … when we stand
up to those who oppress our
communities, that Allah
accepts from us that as a
form of jihad, that we are
struggling against tyrants
and rulers not only abroad
in the Middle East or on the
other side of the world, but
here in these United States
of America, where you have
fascists and white
supremacists and
Islamophobes reigning in the
White House.”

In an interview with The
Washington Post early
Friday, Sarsour said she was
advocating solely for
peaceful, nonviolent
dissent.

But since videos of the
speech began circulating,
conservative media outlets
have accused the activist of
urging Muslims to wage a
holy war against the Trump
administration.

“Linda Sarsour Calls for
‘Jihad’ Against Trump
Administration,” Breitbart
wrote.”The context of
Sarsour’s remarks indicate
that she meant a jihad using
words,” Breitbart clarified
in its own article.
“However, the term has also
been used to describe
violent struggle, including
terrorism, against
non-Muslims or against
governments described as
enemies.”

Sarsour vehemently rejected
that interpretation. “For
people to out of nowhere
claim that I would be
calling for some sort of
violence against the
president is absolutely
ludicrous,” Sarsour told The
Post. “That’s just not who I
am. That’s never been who I
am.”

Some on social media argued
that by using the word
“jihad” Sarsour should have
known the general public
would interpret it as a
violent term connected to
Islamic extremism.

“Jihad, while co-opted means
something very specific to a
lot of people,” writer
Yashar Ali said on Twitter.
“If you want to use it …
expect the blow back.”

Once again, Sarsour was
thrust into the crosshairs
on social media. On Twitter,
conservatives called her a
“terrorist sympathizer” and
claimed Sarsour should be
placed on a terrorist watch
list or be investigated by
the Secret Service. Others
threatened her and even
called for her deportation.
(Sarsour, a daughter of
Palestinian immigrants, was
born and raised in
Brooklyn.)

Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a
Fox News story and said,
“Who in the @DNC will
denounce this activist and
democrat leader calling for
Jihad again trump?”

Meanwhile, Muslims and
non-Muslims alike came to
Sarsour’s defense. Soon the
hashtags #istandwithlinda
and #myjihad spread on
Twitter, with many Muslims
sharing their own personal
interpretations of jihad.

Karen Armstrong, British
scholar of comparative
religion, finds that there
is a long and inglorious
tradition of distorting
Islam in Europe. She
criticises the notion that
Islam is essentially more
violent than Christianity
and speaks about the genesis
of Western disdain for the
Arab world. Interview by
Claudia Mende.

(Continued from last week's
CCN)

So secularism is
perceived as an essentially
Western concept?

Armstrong: It is a
Western innovation; we were
able to develop it under our
own dynamic and not at
somebody else's behest. It
was essential to our
modernisation and many
therefore found it
liberating. But in the Arab
world, it was merely a
foreign import; it was
imposed by colonial powers
and came with political
subjection rather than
political freedom. When the
colonialists left, it was
often imposed so cruelly
that it seemed positively
evil.

When Ataturk secularised
modern Turkey, he closed
down all the madrassas. His
policies of ethnic cleansing
forever associated
secularism with the violence
of the Young Turks, a
secularist group who had
seized power in Ottoman
Turkey and committed the
Armenian massacres during
World War I. These rulers
wanted their countries to
look modern (that is,
European), even though the
majority of the population
had no familiarity with
Western ideas.

What about Egypt, the
motherland of Islamism?

Armstrong: After an attempt
on his life in 1954, Gamal
Abdel Nasser incarcerated
thousands of members of the
Muslim Brotherhood, the
innocent along with the
guilty minority. Most were
imprisoned without trial for
doing nothing more
incri­mi­nating than handing
out leaflets or attending a
meeting.

One of them was Sayyid Qutb.
As he saw the Brothers being
beaten, tortured and
executed in this vile prison
and heard Nasser vowing to
secularise Egypt on the
Western model and confine
Islam to the private sphere,
secularism seemed a great
evil. In prison he wrote
"Milestones", the "bible" of
Sunni fundamentalism, the
work of a man who has been
pushed too far and was
executed, at Nasser's
special request, in 1966.
The other Brothers were
radicalised in these
terrible prisons; when they
were released in the 1970s,
they took their extremism
into the mainstream.

END OF SERIES

Interview conducted by
Claudia MendeKaren Armstrong is a
British scholar of
comparative religion. She is
the author of several
bestsellers on the history
of religion. Her newest
publication deals with
violence in Judaism,
Christianity and Islam.
"Fields of Blood: Religion
and the History of Violence"
(2014).

The UK Muslim News Awards
for Excellence event was
held 27 March 2017 in London
to acknowledge British
Muslim and non-Muslim
contributions to the
society.

Ibn Battuta Award
for Excellence in
MEDIA:

For fair, accurate
and balanced
reporting on an
issue involving
Muslims nationally
or internationally.

Winner: Nabila Ramdani

Nabila Ramdani is an
award-winning
French-Algerian
journalist,
columnist, and
broadcaster who
specialises in
French politics,
Islamic affairs, and
the Arab World. She
has established a
long-standing
reputation for
producing fearless,
balanced and honest
reporting across a
wide variety of
media outlets.

Nabila’s bylines
have appeared in the
Daily Mail, Daily
Telegraph, The
Independent, The
Guardian and Evening
Standard. While she
has produced
exclusives and
interviews from the
Muslim world and
Arab Spring, Nabila
has also covered
issues that are
applicable to all
Muslims living in
western societies
such as Britain,
writing with acute
sensitivity to the
lives of Muslims
living in the UK and
in France.

In the Charlie Hebdo
debate, she argued
vigorously on the
BBC against the
magazine’s bigotry:
opposing terrorism
while also objecting
to hate
publications.
Nabila, who lives in
London, was also the
first journalist in
the UK to expose
poorly sourced
stories linking
refugees to attacks
against women.

Pilgrimage to
the Saudi
Arabian city of
Mecca is one of
many rituals
that are shared
by both Sunni
and Shia Muslims

The Sunni and
Shia muslims:
Islam's
1,400-year-old
divide explained

The divisions
date back to the
years
immediately
after the
Prophet
Mohammed’s death

Tensions between
Saudi Arabia and
Iran
fundamentally
boil down to two
things – the
battle to be the
dominant nation
in the Middle
East and the
fact the
countries
represent the
regional
strongholds of
two rival
branches of
Islam.

The Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia is
ruled by a Sunni
monarchy known
as the House of
Saud, with 90
per cent of the
population
adherents of
their leaders’
faith. The
Islamic Republic
of Iran,
meanwhile, is
overwhelmingly
Shia, with up to
95 per cent of
nationals
belonging to the
denomination.

Both countries
are major oil
producers but
while Saudi
covers a
significantly
larger land
mass, Iran’s
population is
more than twice
the size.

It is the
theological
divide that
really drives
the wedge
between the two
countries,
however, with
each unable to
accept the
legitimacy of
the other
nation’s
dominant faith.

What caused
the Sunni-Shia
divide?

The Sunni-Shia
conflict is
1,400 years in
the making,
dating back to
the years
immediately
after the
Prophet
Mohammed’s death
in 632.

The Prophet died
without having
appointed a
successor
leading to a
massive split
over the future
of the rapidly
growing religion
– chiefly
whether the
religion’s next
leader should be
chosen by a kind
of democratic
consensus, or
whether only
Mohammed’s blood
relations should
reign.

Mufti Zeeyad
Ravat, Pillars of Guidance
Community Centre, held at
Dandenong Indoor Stadium

PLEASE
NOTE

It is the usual policy of CCN to
include notices of events, video links and articles that
some readers may find interesting or relevant. Such notices
are often posted as received.
Including such messages/links or
providing the details of such
events does not necessarily
imply endorsement or agreement
by CCN of the contents therein.

The Deen family migrated to
Australia in the late 1860s.
Due to the conditions of the
White Australia policy their
women were not allowed into
the country if they were not
here before 1905. Their sons
were brought out when they
turned sixteen or older.

The early Deens were hawkers
who travelled the outback to
take goods to the wool and
cattle stations in towns
such as Longreach, Winton,
Blackall and Tennant Creek.
They sourced goods from
warehouses in Brisbane and
had their base in Blackall.

Foth Deen and his cousin
Naby Box were the first
Deens who worked in this
occupation. Their sons later
worked with them. The
property owners of the day
looked forward to their
visits as there was little
transport at the time as
roads were not paved and
many towns were isolated, in
what was then known as the
outback.

Fakir Deen, the son of Naby
Box married an Australian
girl named Dorothy Graves
and they had three children
two girls and one boy. The
eldest girl was named
Sharmina and she was born in
Winton, Safian was born in
Blackall and Ramzon was born
in Biloela.

Sharmina was the first Deen
child born in Australia. She
has just turned eighty on
5th July. She is the mother
of three and grandmother of
seven.

Her sister Safian is in and
aged care home due to a
stroke which left her unable
to walk and her brother
Ramzon (husband of Janeth
Deen) passed away in 1996.

Men
deny us equality, not the Qur'an: a female
Islamic judge in India speaks out

One
of the country’s first group of
women trained as kazis, Jahanara,
is using her religious knowledge
to help Muslims fight back
against male domination

Two
of India’s first female Islamic
judges: Afroz Begum (left) and
Jahanara.

INDIA: A seminary in
Mumbai, the Darul Uloom Niswan, started
a two-year course for female kazis in
2015. The hope is that, armed with
Qur’anic knowledge, they will tackle the
customs that are perceived as being
detrimental to women.

This summer the first batch of 15 women
completed the course and are ready to
start work.

Afroz Begum, 43, is another of the
course graduates. Unlike Jahanara, Begum
is happily married to a man who supports
her work. “The Qur’an gives us equal
rights. It gives us the right to life,
education, property, the right to free
choice. Once Muslim women understand
this, their lives will change,” she
says.

Since marriage is a legal contract under
Islam, not a sacrament, the terms and
conditions of the nikah (marriage) must
be discussed and negotiated with the
kazi. At the moment, contracts tend to
favour the husband.

Afghanistan's all-girl robotics team banned
from entering US - but their robot will be
allowed in

The
six girls wept when they heard
they couldn't escort their
machine to Washington DC for an
international robotics challenge

Team Afghanistan weren't granted
travel visas

AFGHANISTAN: Six teenage
girls from Afghanistan have been denied
visas to travel to the US for an
international robotics competition, but
they will be permitted to send their
ball-sorting contraption to compete
without them.

The aspiring inventors wept when they
heard they couldn't escort their machine
to Washington DC for the First Global
Challenge, an annual contest for high
school students from across the world.

They had twice trekked around 500 miles
from Herat, a western city in
Afghanistan, to the American embassy in
Kabul to apply for the one-week travel
visas.

But their efforts proved to be in vain
as US officials rejected their
applications following a series of
interviews.

Afghanistan's first female tech boss
Roya Mahboob, who founded software firm
Citadel, organised the all-girl team and
said they were "crying all day" after
they were turned down.

She told Forbes: “It's a very important
message for our people. Robotics is
very, very new in Afghanistan.

When
a Muslim doctor arrived in a
rural Midwestern town, “it felt
right.” But that feeling began
to change after the election of
Donald Trump.

Ayaz Virji
walks home from work with his
wife, Musarrat Virji, in Dawson,
Minn.

US, DAWSON, MINN. — The
doctor was getting ready. Must look
respectable, he told himself. Must be
calm. He changed into a dark suit, blue
shirt and tie and came down the wooden
staircase of the stately Victorian house
at Seventh and Pine that had always been
occupied by the town’s most prominent
citizens.

That was him: prominent citizen, town
doctor, 42-year-old father of three, and
as far as anyone knew, the first Muslim
to ever live in Dawson, a farming town
of 1,400 people in the rural western
part of the state.

“Does this look okay?” Ayaz Virji asked
his wife, Musarrat, 36.

In two hours, he was supposed to give
his third lecture on Islam, and he was
sure it would be his last. A local
Lutheran pastor had talked him into
giving the first one in Dawson three
months before, when people had asked
questions such as whether Muslims who
kill in the name of the prophet Muhammad
are rewarded in death with virgins,
which had bothered him a bit. Two months
later, he gave a second talk in a
neighboring town, which had ended with
several men calling him the antichrist.

***

The morning after the
election, he was shocked and angry, and
when he looked up the local results
before he went to work, the feelings
only intensified. Not only had Trump won
the county, he had won Dawson itself by
six percentage points.

By the time he got to the hospital, he
was pacing up and down the hallways,
saying he hoped people realized that
they just voted to put his family on a
Muslim registry, and how would he be
treated around here if he didn’t have “M.D.”
after his name? People tried to reason
with him. A colleague told him it’s not
that people agreed with everything Trump
said, and Ayaz said no, you’re giving
them a pass. He told the hospital’s
chief executive that he was thinking of
resigning, and she told him to take some
days to cool off.

Mothers from
multi-faith backgrounds, including
Muslim, Christian and Hindu, in
Indonesia are leading the country’s
fight against violent extremist groups,
earning them the title of ‘militant
mothers’. Speaking with The Point
Magazine from Indonesia, Dwi Rubiyanti
Kholifah of the Asian Muslim Action
Network provides an insight into the
work her organisation and the role of
women in countering violent extremism
and building peace.

A shared responsibility
The Asian Muslim Action Network (AMAN)
approaches countering violent extremism
as a shared responsibility of all
communities, and women have a leading
role to play, Kholifah said.
AMAN began in 2002 and is a network that
brings together individuals, groups and
associations of Muslims in Asia
subscribing to a progressive and
enlightened approach to Islam. The
organisation provides a forum for women
and young people to share ideas and
experiences, and to facilitate follow-up
processes to synchronise the actions and
programs launched by common interest
groups and individuals in Asia.

What are 'militant
mothers'?
One program that has proven successful
at strengthening the capacity of women
in countering violent extremism and
bringing about social change is the
‘Militant Mothers’ program. The program
is an interfaith group of women who have
a passion for gender equality and social
justice issues, including protecting
vulnerable young women and promoting
social cohesion.
Kholifa said the concept of ‘Militant
Mothers’ came about because often it is
women who are on the frontlines of
conflict resolution.

The group is made up of mothers living
in Indonesia, meeting face-to-face
regularly to create and deliver projects
aimed at strengthening the role of women
in public life and supporting other
women in their public and private lives.

“They (the participants of the program)
are our ‘rumour educators’ in the field
so, for example, they clarify when news
is spreading against minorities that may
not be true. They stand up against
intolerance, negative propaganda, and
the politicisation of religions during
elections, etc. .........

Thousands
of Jews Make an Annual Pilgrimage to This
Muslim Country: These communities coexist
against all odds.

Men wear tefillin, small black
leather boxes containing scrolls
of parchment inscribed with
verses from the Torah, to pray
in the historic Ghriba synagogue
on Tunisia's Djerba island.

TUNISIA: The small island
of Djerba off the coast of Tunisia has
all the ingredients for the perfect
holiday: Glistening white sands, warm
Mediterranean waters, small villages
with mazelike alleys, and hundreds of
archaeological sites witnessing the
land's long history. After arriving,
many tourists seem content to burrow
under a thatched umbrella of a luxury
resort along the beach of Sidi Mahres,
neglecting some of the real charm of the
island.

Head deeper inside, past craft markets,
café terraces, and decrepit colonial
buildings, and a fascinating contrast is
revealed: There remains one of the
oldest Jewish settlements in the world,
in a country that’s 98 percent Muslim.

The island's prominent Ghriba synagogue
has been in continuous use for over two
millennia. People believe that it was
built around 500 B.C. by Jews who had
fled after the Roman destruction of the
First Temple of Jerusalem. The community
grew during the Spanish Inquisition, and
later from nearby countries. Eventually
around 100,000 Jews lived in Tunisia
before the country won independence from
France in 1956.

Today, the 1,100 Jewish people centered
around the famous synagogue in Djerba
are nearly all that remain of the once
thriving community. But every year,
thousands fill the blue tiled Ghriba
synagogue again during the annual
pilgrimage for Lag BaOmer, which takes
place 33 days after Passover.

Islamic Exceptionalism: How the Struggle Over Islam
Is Reshaping the World

by

Shadi Hamid

Description

In Islamic
Exceptionalism, Brookings Institution scholar
and acclaimed author Shadi Hamid offers a novel
and provocative argument on how Islam is, in
fact, "exceptional" in how it relates to
politics, with profound implications for how we
understand the future of the Middle East.

Divides among
citizens aren't just about power but are
products of fundamental disagreements over the
very nature and purpose of the modern nation
state—and the vexing problem of religion’s role
in public life. Hamid argues for a new
understanding of how Islam and Islamism shape
politics by examining different models of
reckoning with the problem of religion and
state, including the terrifying—and alarmingly
successful—example of ISIS.

With unprecedented access to Islamist activists
and leaders across the region, Hamid offers a
panoramic and ambitious interpretation of the
region's descent into violence. Islamic
Exceptionalism is a vital contribution to our
understanding of Islam's past and present, and
its outsized role in modern politics.

We don't have to
like it, but we have to understand it—because
Islam, as a religion and as an idea, will
continue to be a force that shapes not just the
region, but the West as well in the decades to
come.

-------------------------------------------------------

Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?

– Henry Ward Beecher
–

Would you like
to see the cover of your favourite book on our book shelves
below?

All questions sent in
are published here anonymously and without any
references to the author of the question.

The Dietitian’s Guide to
Meal Planning

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you
plan to fail.

Planning meals for a week can help save you
time, money and stress. When you plan your
meals, it saves you from doing extra trips to
the shops, which means you are less likely to do
some impulse shopping, and therefore, will help
save money in the long run. This also means you
less likely to get drawn to buying junk food
that are on sale or discounted.

It may sound like a lot of effort at first, but
it can be very simple and will reduce your
stress over “what to cook for dinner”. If you
are like me and you just eat leftover dinners
for lunch – you can! As long as put variety in
your meal plan, there are no set rules as to
what needs to be served at what meal.

Useful tips to keep in mind when doing up your
meal plan:

• Plan your
meals around the foods that you already have
at home. For example, the types of spices
that you already have. The basics, like
bread rice, eggs, milk, flour you may have
already or just need to top up.
• Use healthy cooking methods for your meals
e.g. bake, roast, stir fry, grill, steam,
boil. Try to avoid deep fryin
• Include some “do it yourself meals” in
your meal plan like sandwiches, wraps which
doesn’t require or needs minimal cooking

For more tips and
guidance on meal planning,
read my blog post which will go live at 5pm
Saturday (8/7/17)..

Welcome to my weekly
column on
Self-Care and
Clarity of Mind.
If you’re taking
time out to read
this, pat yourself
on the back because
you have shown
commitment to taking
care of your mind
and body.

This week, In Shaa
ALLAH, we will
explore the topic:
How to Unlearn
Your Fears

For
many years I
harboured within me
two major fears -
fear of abandonment
and rejection and
fear of spiders. It
was only two years
ago that I was able
to unlearn these
fears and am now a
spider-friendly
person who loves her
own company and
could not give a
hoot about being
rejected or
abandoned. It didn’t
happen overnight,
especially
overcoming
arachnophobia :)

Fears
are learnt. The
environment we grow
up in and the
mindset we are
conditioned to
operate from govern
our fears. I watched
a horrible film when
I was very young
called
Arachnophobia. I had
no problems with
spiders until I saw
that film. And then
I watched Harry
Potter Chambers of
Secret and Aragog
the Spider was
enough to keep me
awake a few nights.
That is a classic
example of physical
fear.

Emotional fears are
slightly different
but learned in a
similar way. They
too are as a result
of experiences and
conditioning. My
fear of abandonment
and rejection came
from childhood
experiences of
inadequate emotional
care.

So
how do we unlearn
our fears?

In
any journey of
transformation, one
must first identify
what needs to be
transformed.
Similarly, in order
to unlearn fears,
one must first
identify what one
fears.

5-Step Process to
identify and unlearn
your fears

1. Make a list
of what you are
fearful of.
These things
could be
emotional or
physical.
2. Beside each
fear, write down
where you got
this fear from?
(parents,
friends, TV or
Film or books)
3. Write down
what exactly
would happen to
you physically
if you had to
face this thing
that was causing
you fear
4. Write down
positive aspects
about the thing
you fear from a
logical and
rational point
of view
5. Every time
you feel fear,
remind yourself
about the
positive aspects
of that thing
that is causing
you fear

It is
the fourth step that
people struggle with
most. For example,
one of my clients
had a fear of dying
in a car crash. She
didn’t fear death,
however, car crash
was not how she
wanted to die. She
said she couldn’t
find anything
positive to say
about a car crash.

You may agree with
her. At some level I
do too. However, let
us look at this from
a Muslim’s
perspective. Once I
did this with my
client she was able
to overcome this
fear completely.

Where there is FAITH
there is NO FEAR.

As
Muslims, we are not
to fear people,
places, things or
situations. We are
to fear (have ‘khawf’)
of ONLY ALLAH.

Example of how to
unlearn fear

Let’s
look at how my
client unlearned her
fear of dying in a
car crash using the
above 5 steps.

1. She listed
her fear - Dying
in a car crash
2. She listed
how she
developed this
fear - She saw
pictures of a
car crash in a
newspaper
clipping when
she was very
young
3. She wrote
down what would
happen to her
physically if
she was in a car
crash - broken
bones, brain
damage, blood
everywhere
(notice she
didn’t mention
death)
4. She wrote
down the
positive aspect
of this car
crash - death,
returning to
ALLAH, and
inshallah jannah
5. She wrote
what she needed
to remind
herself every
time this fear
gripped her -
That dying of a
car crash will
not matter when
her soul is
released from
her body because
she will no
longer exist in
human form. She
will be awaiting
her judgment
day. She needs
to focus on the
now and do good
deeds to be able
to get jannah
when she dies.

This
rather logical
confrontation of her
fear gave her a
renewed perspective
of her temporary
existence here in
this duniya.

As
Muslims we are
wonderfully equipped
with this
realisation that
life in the duniya
is temporary. Fear
is shaytaan’s
whispers to make you
think otherwise.
Faith overcomes
fear. Faith and fear
can never coexist.

In Shaa ALLAH, next
week we will explore
the topic:
Happiness and
Joy...what is the
difference?

If you wish to know
about a specific
topic with regards
to Self-Care and
Clarity of Mind,
please text or email
me or visit
www.muslimahmindmatters.com.
If you wish to have
a FREE one hour
Finding Clarity
telephone session,
contact me on
0451977786.

Exercise burns calories and raises metabolism,
so be sure to refuel with food.

Try five smaller meals instead of 3 big ones.

Include healthy snacks and lots of water for a
glowing skin as well.

Before a workout, snack on carbs (juice, fruit,
yogurt, etc.) for fast energy. After a workout,
replenish with a carb/protein mix for muscle
recovery. Otherwise keep your meals and snacks
as light and healthy as possible.

Answer: The
Pomegranate has been
around since the
times of the
prophets and grows
successfully almost
everywhere. However,
being from the
desert, it hates
humidity but will
still thrive if
correct attention is
paid.

Here are the main
reasons for failure
to fruit:

• The main
reason is that
the sucker stems
were not removed
as the tree
grew. The result
is a tree with
about a dozen
base stems.
• A good healthy
pomegranate
should have no
more than two to
three base stems
and ideally only
one.
• The tree is in
deep shade.
Pomegranates
love direct sun.
• You bought an
ornamental
variety which
does not bear
fruit. Remember
that some
varieties are
non-fruiting.
• It is too
humid for the
variety you
planted. Always
ensure you plant
a variety that
can tolerate
humidity.

We have enjoined on man
kindness to his parents: in
pain did his mother bear
him, and in pain did she
give him birth.

The carrying of the (child)
to his weaning is (a period
of) thirty months. At
length, when he reaches the
age of full strength and
attains forty years, he
says:

“O my Lord! grant me that I
may be grateful for Your
favour which You have
bestowed upon me, and upon
both my parents, and that I
may work righteousness such
as You may approve; and be
gracious to me in respect of
my offspring. Truly have I
turned to You and truly I do
bow (to You) in Islam.”

This
is an environment where our children will learn
about Allah and his beloved Prophet Muhammad
S.A.W., recite their duas and surahs, learn
about the 5 pillars of Islam, following the
Sunnah, the values of Ramadaan and Eid and go to
sleep listening to the beautiful recitation of
the Quran or Zikr. ……

HELP!!! THE ONLY ISLAMIC KINDY IN BRISBANE!!

Assalamualaikum. Shajarah Islamic Kindergarten
is in need of your help! The Department of
Transport who owns the current premises at 2
Rothon Drive, Rochedale South, require the
property to create a new busway through the
area. We need to find a new location a.s.a.p.
Going back to the beginning…. Shajarah Islamic
Kindergarten was the inspiration of a new
Muslimah’s concerns that there was no Islamic
Kindy where she could send her son to for the
most critical years of his life i.e the 1st five
years. (As we are all aware of the importance of
the foundation phase in the correct upbringing
of our children). She noticed this empty
Kindergarten building at No. 2 Rothon Drive and
in October 2012 the first Islamic Kindy in
Brisbane opened it’s doors to a pressing need in
the community. From such humble beginnings up
till now, we are pleased to say that through the
Rahmah and mercy of Allah we have grown to
become an established institution serving the
needs of the Muslim community.

In October 2016 we were assessed by the Office
of Early Childhood Education and Care and
Alhamdullilah we were rated as “EXCEEDING THE
NATIONAL QUALITY FRAMEWORK”. We meet all
government requirements for the National
governing body “ACECQA” as well as the
Queensland State Government Office of Early
Childhood Education and Care.

Our Service Approval currently includes :-
 An Approved Kindergarten Program for children
in their final year before school,
 Long Day Care for 3year olds to school age,
 Before School Care
 After School Care
 Vacation Care for School Aged Children
 A Montessori Program across all ages.

We
have 24 childcare places per day. Our
Kindergarten is set in a beautiful garden
setting and it will be sad to see it go. We even
have parents coming from the North side and as
far as Gold Coast, braving the traffic for up to
an hour just to place their child in our Islamic
Kindy!

To
date we have approached various organisations
and individuals and visited buildings for rental
but unfortunately have not been successful in
securing premises for our new Kindy.
We beseech anyone who can be of any assistance
in helping us to find new premises, renovate if
required, and relocate by the 31st December 2017
to come forward and assist us in continuing this
humble but integral venture for the future of
our children in this environment we find
ourselves in.

1. All Islamic Event dates given above are supplied by
the Council of Imams QLD (CIQ) and are provided as a guide and are
tentative and subject to the sighting of the moon.

2. The Islamic date changes to the next day starting in
the evenings after maghrib. Therefore, exceptfor Lailatul
Mehraj,
Lailatul Bhahraat
and
Lailatul Qadr – these dates refer to the commencement of the event
starting in the evening of the corresponding day.

1. Daily Hadeeth reading From Riyadusaliheen,
After Fajar and after esha .
2. After school Madrassah for children Mon-Thu 5pm to 7pm

3. Adult Quran classes (Males) Monday and
Tuesday after esha for an hour.
4. Community engagement program every second Saturday of the
Month, interstate and overseas speakers, starts after margib,
Dinner served after esha, First program begins on the 15
August.

5. Monthly Qiyamulail program every 1st
Friday of the month starts after esha.
6. Fortnight Sunday Breakfast program. After Fajar, short
Tafseer followed by breakfast.
7. Weekly Tafseer by Imam Uzair after esha followed by
dinner. Starts from 26 August.

For all activities, besides Adult Quran,
classes sisters and children are welcome.

Articles and
opinions appearing in this newsletter do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of the CCN Team, its Editor or its
Sponsors, particularly if they eventually turn out to be
libellous, unfounded, objectionable, obnoxious, offensive,
slanderous and/or downright distasteful.

It is the usual policy of CCN to
include from time to time, notices of events that some
readers may find interesting or relevant. Such notices are
often posted as received. Including such messages or
providing the details of such events does not necessarily
imply endorsement of the contents of these events by CCN

The best ideas
and the best feedback come from our community of readers. If you
have a topic or opinion that you want to write about or want
seen covered or any news item that you think might be of benefit
to the Crescents Community please
e-mail us..

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